Stuff Smith 1936-1939

Stuff Smith | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 9, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Allegro Corporation
• ASIN: B000001NNN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,540 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I'se A-Muggin'

2. I'se a Muggin' Musical Numbers Game

3. I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music

4. I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket

5. I Don't Want to Make History

6. 'Tain't No Use

7. After You've Gone

8. You'se a Viper

9. Robins and Roses

10. I've Got a Heavy Date

11. It Ain't Right

12. Old Joe's Hittin' the Jug

13. Serenade for a Wealthy Widow

14. Knock, Knock, Who's There?

15. Bye Bye Baby

16. Here Comes the Man With the Jive

17. Twilight in Turkey

18. Where Is the Sun?

19. Upstairs

20. Onyx Club Spree

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Jazz's Undersung Heroes at his Peak., February 10, 2002

By 

Iconophoric - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stuff Smith 1936-1939 (Audio CD)

Master fiddler Stuff Smith flying solo would be enough to get you there and keep you there. --But add a dose of searing soul in the form of the young Jonah Jones on trumpet, along with a galaxy of seasoned and swinging side men (including drummer Cozy Cole) and you have one of the most volcanic acts in the annals of recorded jazz. To hear Smith and Jones trade choruses is to feel yourself being lifted, palpably lifted, right out of your day.

You won't hear a lot about these records, but believe it, they are among the swingingest and at times the most uninhibited of all early jazz performances. Later collections from this series will interest the die-hard completist, but these first recordings are, in my humble opinion, the most filled with youthful exuberance and ultimately the most satisfying on repeated listening.

One of Jazz's all-time feelgood summits. You owe it to yourself to hear these.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Merry Prankster of Jazz, May 20, 2001

By 

Robert English (Independence, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stuff Smith 1936-1939 (Audio CD)

Various european LPs (all out of print) have issued these same tracks, but they sound better here on this CD issue which has benefitted from improvements in audio restoration technology. Though there is some variance in quality from track to track, this is a very listenable collection.

What Bojangles Robinson did with his feet, and "Fats" Waller did with his piano, Stuff Smith did with his violin. He played around with the music, toying with it, and made it his own in the process.

There were other jazz violinists that Stuff could be compared to, such as Joe Venuti and Stefane Grappelly, but Stuff did not roam the stratosphere of psuedo-classical styling like they did. He got down and dirty with it, and had a great time. And, listening to it seventy years later, so will you.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fab, fun, swing-era violin music, March 14, 2010

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Stuff Smith 1936-1939 (Audio CD)

Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys
"The Chronological Classics: 1936-1939"
(French Classics, 1993)
----------------------------------------------------
Fun, rambunctious swing music from the classic Cotton Club era... Violinist Stuff Smith led a lively band with star players such as Buster Bailey, Cozy Cole and Jonah Jones, merrily cavorting their way through a parade of novelty tunes, much in the style of Cab Calloway and Fats Waller. It's a gas! (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Music Guide)